Finally...It's over!

My body especially my feet is still aching from the "aftermath". But it was all worth it.

Alhamdulillah, the party turned out to be just as planned. I haven't been disclosing the whole story behind the party, coz I'm scared that it did not turn out well, or worse still, tak jadi langsung. So here it is.

The Plan

Mak wanted to have an open house for Raya this year coz the last open house we had was, I think, 5 years ago. And I, wanted to have a small gathering for Aliff's 1st birthday. At first, I don't think I wanted to organize any party for Aliff, but after a second thought, it wasn't fair to him as we did one for Ashraff. Then we thought of Ashraff. Ashraff might feel left-out on the day itself when we told him the birthday party is for Aliff. So that's it. The verdict is out....we want to have 3-in1 occassion at one go!

The Initial Preparation

Hubby wanted it to be grander than the usual, in terms of everything especially the food. He said this is to be fair to the guests, as they might feel obligated to buy two presents to the party. So there I was working on a budget. Of course, if you guys have been reading my blog, I've been planning for this party since the first quarter of the year.

At first, the whole planning part was dumped on me alone. I took it as a challenge, but after a while, I got all stressed out. So, I delegate the food and food setting part to Hubby. I gave him the budget and told him he's free to choose what kind of food, how many type of food and in whatever way just as long as it is within the budget. And he's also in charge of the seating, canopy, buffet table and all. If you've attended my party and found the food to be good/no good, that's my Hubby job...hehe.

The rest, especially the invites, deco and favours, are mine. I told Hubby I wanted to have a theme party this time around, and I have to crack my head to find a suitable theme that will interest Ashraff. Of course, it has to be superhero character. He loves Ultraman a lot, so that is our first choice, but we found out it's pretty hard to get Ultraman's party supplies. Then we thought of Spiderman and Batman. Aliff becomes Batman, and Ashraff is the Spiderman. Bila fikir pasal deco and favours, I slasheed out the Batman, and left with only Spiderman. So there it was "Ashraff and Aliff's Spiderman Birthday Bash".

Then on the favours. I've decided to have adult favours, kids, favours, toddlers favours and babies favours, and I have to categorise my guest according to their ages (meaning which I have to go into the extend of finding out anak diaorang umur berapa..hehe.) Kerja gila? Yes, it is! I naik separuh gila buat all the favours! Hahaha...

Adult's favour - chocolate chip, personalized choc wrapper (sorry kalau ada yg tak dapat sebab tak cukup) and a bookmark from Sydney.

Kids' favour - a personalized colouring book with Ashraff and Aliff's simple biodata and photo inside, crayon/colour pencil and personalized choc wrapper.

Toddlers' favour - personalized choc wrapper and a toy car.

Babies' favour - a rattle and baby biscuit.

I'm sorry sekiranya ada kekurangan pada favours.

We did plan to hire a Spiderman mascot but when have a look at the photo, Spiderman dia macam pakai baju melayu je. Tak cantik langsung! With such an exorbitant price they are charging, it is not worth at all. So, we scrape that idea of having a mascot.

The last minute preparation

I took two days off before the day, for that very last minute preparation. Abah cakap I macam nak kahwinkan anak...hehe. The whole two days was spent buying extra favours (in case it was not sufficient for the guest), decorate and hang up the banner, packaging the favours, decorating the walls with Mr Spidey, figuring out to do the spiderweb, and with the help from Mak, I would be able to come out with one. Thank God my sis-in-law was there to help me.

The canopy people came in to set-up the canopy. I was mesmerized by the bright blue and red 20ft x 20ft canopy. Too bad they could not get red chairs to go with the blue tablecloth.

And then there was this weather issue that I was sick worried about. The whole of that two days, it was raining cats and dogs throughout the day. We were praying hard that the weather turned out fine on the day itself. And alhamdulillah, it was. The sun decided to show up on that day, but it wasn't extremely hot. The weather was..emmm....just nice...

The Day

In the morning, we spent our time decorating the house with red and blue balloons. Hubby was on the road, grabbing some last minute supplies, like the balloon bouquet, an extra helper, food. At the same time, I had to reschedule Aliff's nap time, as that choosen time 3-5pm is usually Aliff's nap time. So we had to drag his morning nap time to about 12 pm (which coincides with Ashraff's nap time), and another nap after the party.

In the morning, I had few guests who dropped by since they could not make it in the evening.

Sharp 3 o'clock, the first guest arrived, which is none other than my humble photographer, Zubye. Thank you so much for willing to sacrifice your holiday just to come to my sons' party. Then a whole lotta guests came rushing in. We were panicky as the food wasn't ready at that time. We did not hire a caterer, so we had to set the table ourselves. Tu yg agak kelam-kabut sekejap. Of course, I had to be the one distributing the favours to the guest, as no one wants to take the responsibility to do so. Takut salah bagi sebab ada macam-macam jenis. Yeah...

Cake cutting is as planned, which is at about 4 pm. I didn't really notice but mak told me that tak ramai kids near the cake cutting table at that time. Maybe sebab semua sibuk makan. And I was too busy to invite the kids to go inside for cake-cutting ceremony.

I have to say it was a full house, though some sent me text messages saying that they could not make it. I completely understand, and insyaAllah we'll meet in some other occassion.

All in all, I'm glad that it is all over. Despite the party being smooth (I think!), I have some regrets though:-

1. I completely forgotten to keluarkan the party hats which I planned to make the kids wear it during cake-cutting. I SHOULD have put it at the cake cutting table beforehand. Now, 20 blue and red party hats lying idle in the storeroom. Any takers?

2. I forgot to introduce the photographer to my mother, father and in-laws. Now I'm not sure whether their faces are captured at all.

3. The house was overwhelmed with lots of guest. Too many sampai I tak sempat nak have a one-to-one chat with most of you. I'm so sorry sekiranya layanan tidak memuaskan. Maybe we'll catch up with each other stories in a more comfortable setting next time around.

4. I didn't get to bid a proper farewell to Izreen. After she has left, Hubby told me she's living to UK on the 18th, and we shall be seeing each other again in one year time. Goodness me...I'm so very sorry Izreen!

I shall learn from these mistakes.

To our guests, thank you so much for coming!
Thank you for the gifts (in whatever form...toys, clothes, books, money)...
and thank you for adjusting to any imperfection.

It feels good to be able to meet these people that I have known in the virtual world and hope we can continue to become good friends - Zubye, Zatul (thanks for that lovely email invites), Emly, Marlina, Eiseai, Dotty, MommyAlif, Ibuhaziq..did I miss anyone?

Special thanks to Firdaus and Emy for helping me out with packaging the favours and taking the cake...
To Jasmin for helping me sourcing out the supplies, giving me some valuable party ideas and entertaining the kids with bubble...
To my sis-in-law, Siti for helping me with the balloon deco and my mom-in-law for helping to look after Aliff while I'm busy decorating the house.
And Sheila & Atan for loaning your maid to us.

Of course, this party would not be possible without the help of the anchor people - Mak for helping in the kitchen, Abah for beautifying the landscape and re-paint the house...and Hubby for your all-time support. Thanks, thanks...and thanks a lot...

I shall upload the photos taken from our own camera later. And once I got some photos from Zubye, I shall do the same. Can't wait, seriously...

Ehem, we plan to have a big do in 3 years time..when Ashraff is 6 and Aliff is 4..and kalau ada adik lagi, masukkan sekali dalam agenda...hehe..InsyaAllah, sekiranya umur panjang...